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Inside Cliff Johnson's Philosophy — Not One Piece That Doesn't Belong
"A puzzle begins with a 'huh?' and ends with an 'aha!'" Cliff Johnson, who built The Fool's Errand in 1987, refused to plant a single red herring — and spent 25 years on the sequel. A reading of that vow, in his own words.
Inside Gunpei Yokoi's Philosophy — Let the Viewer Fill In the Rest
"Whether a game is interesting or not doesn't depend on whether it's color or b&w." Gunpei Yokoi's design philosophy nearly fits in that one sentence. Reading three interviews from 1996 and 1997 with the engineer who shipped a monochrome Game Boy — and, in 1980, a mechanical puzzle called Ten Billion — this piece lines up his philosophy, his obsessions, the failure he admitted in public, his dilemmas, and his yardsticks.
Inside Eiji Aonuma's Philosophy — Refusing to Let a Puzzle Have One Answer
"There are many answers to a single problem, and all of them can potentially be correct." That is Eiji Aonuma in 2023, after more than 25 years leading The Legend of Zelda. Yet in 2015 the same man was telling his staff never to make the game easier. Reading across six of his own interviews for his philosophy, his obsessions, the failures he has admitted in public, his dilemmas and his influences.
"One Mile at a Time" — Burn With Me's Case for a Deckbuilder That Refuses to Spiral
One piece today: Dayten Rose's demo review of the deckbuilder Burn With Me (Nozomu Games, releasing October 12, 2026), published September 9, 2026 on Thinky Games. The article contrasts the game with Balatro to argue that Burn With Me keeps deckbuilding's surface while pushing its substance toward a legible, linear puzzle — a designer betting on restraint in a genre that usually chases runaway score inflation.
Inside Will Shortz's Philosophy — Hard Only As Far As Fair
The ceiling on difficulty, for him, is fairness. Will Shortz, crossword editor of The New York Times, has published a puzzle almost every day for more than thirty years. Reading across ten of his own interviews, lectures and broadcasts for his philosophy, his obsessions, the failures he has admitted in public, his dilemmas and his influences.
Macchi et al.: Letting people touch it changed nothing; drawing it as parts raised solving by 33 points — Fukai Reads
A peer-reviewed paper by Laura Macchi and colleagues at the University of Milano-Bicocca (Journal of Intelligence, 9 May 2026) testing the received wisdom that handling a problem's materials makes insight more likely. Asked to build four equilateral triangles from six pencils, participants given the real pencils went from 27.3% to 32.6% — no significant difference. But swapping a matchstick arithmetic puzzle for a photograph of real matchsticks lifted solving from 46.7% to 79.3%, with nothing to touch. What worked was not the hand, but the picture saying "I am made of parts."
Inside Chris Crawford's Philosophy — Drawing Puzzles Outside the Line, Then Counting His Own Defeats
"Puzzles are challenges with no purposeful opponents." The shortest definition of a puzzle was written by Chris Crawford, the man who almost single-handedly started the field of game design writing. That definition placed puzzles outside of games — and forty years later he wrote, in his own words, that he had failed. Reading across his journal, his laws, his memoirs, his design diary and his talks for his philosophy, obsessions, failures, dilemmas and influences.
Inside Thomas Grip's Philosophy — Rewriting Puzzles from Obstacle to "I Did That"
A horror developer wrote a seven-part series about puzzles on his own blog. He argued that focusing on fun makes design fail, that trial and error will doom games, and he named his own failed puzzles out loud. Reading across his blog and interviews for Thomas Grip's philosophy, obsessions, failures, dilemmas and influences.
"Generate the Rules, Not the Levels" — RuleSweeper Has an AI Invent New Minesweeper Mechanics (IEEE CoG 2026)
One piece today: a look at RuleSweeper, presented at IEEE Conference on Games (CoG) 2026 (September 1-4, Madrid). Ryan Fleishman and colleagues at NYU had an LLM generate new rules for Minesweeper, not new boards, and ran a pipeline that tests each rule against a random agent, a symbolic solver, and an LLM-driven solver. Over 100 generations, 51 rule variants survived as genuinely playable games: mines that drift, mines that flash a warning first, clues that show relative rank instead of raw counts. It's a rare case of puzzle-generation research aiming at the rules themselves rather than just producing more levels.
Inside Martin Gardner's Philosophy — Turning What He Didn't Know Into Care for the Reader
A philosophy graduate with no mathematics degree wrote a puzzle column for 25 years and carried everything from pentominoes to the Game of Life out into the world. He kept saying he was "strictly a journalist." Reading across his interviews and autobiography for Martin Gardner's philosophy, obsessions, regrets, dilemmas and influences.
「从未教过它可解,却诞生了可解的谜题」——不靠求解器生成 Sokoban 的扩散模型
今天只有一篇。读了 2026 年 8 月 16 日发布在 arXiv 上的预印本《Solvable Sokoban Without a Solver via Diffusion》(Sina Baghal)。判断一个推箱子(Sokoban)盘面是否可解,这个问题本身是 PSPACE 完全的,以往的自动生成惯例是花费高昂代价运行求解器(实际尝试求解的程序)来验证。这篇论文报告的结果是:一个基于 Transformer 的离散扩散模型,在完全不给予「是否可解」标签、也不接触任何求解器的情况下,只学习「填补被遮盖的格子」这一件事,却让生成盘面中的 77.4% 直接可解,剩余部分中的 94.5% 也只需去掉一面墙就能变得可解。论文从生成顺序的自由度这一角度,解释了「可解」这一全局性质如何从局部的训练目标中自然溢出。
Inside Mark Brown's Philosophy — He Saw Every Criticism Coming, and Shipped Anyway
A critic who had spent a decade analysing other people's game design finally made a puzzle game of his own. When the complaints arrived, he said he had seen all of them coming. Reading six of his own devlogs for his philosophy, obsessions, failures, dilemmas and influences.
Inside Dave Grossman's Philosophy — Let the Player Be the Clever One
"Your job is not to make yourself feel clever, it's to make the player feel clever." Dave Grossman has said it for thirty years — and rather than leave it a slogan, he sat his mother-in-law down with his own game and published every place she got stuck. A reading of his philosophy, obsessions, failures, dilemmas and influences across seven sources.
Measuring "Fun to Cooperate" Instead of "Satisfying to Solve" — Big Walk's New Yardstick for Puzzles
One piece today. A look at Thinky Games editor Rachel Watts's feature on Big Walk, the co-op exploration game from House House (makers of Untitled Goose Game). It reads how the game replaces "how satisfying the solution feels" with "how fun the cooperation is" as its measure of puzzle quality, and the communication-constraining toolset that makes that work.
Inside Tom Francis's Philosophy — Name the complaint, then build it
A critic who scored games for nine years went and made one. In his own words, his process is to play a game, name what he wishes were different, and build that. Across fourteen posts, talks and interviews, I read his philosophy, obsessions, failures, dilemmas and influences.
What Happens When "Number Go Up" Is Banned — Reading the Puzzle Design of GMTK Game Jam 2026
One piece today: a look back at the 2026 edition of GMTK Game Jam, the world's largest game jam (Mark Brown, Game Maker's Toolkit, published August 8, 2026), reading three entries through a puzzle-design lens — Circuit Breaker (a grid puzzle where the fuse itself becomes the obstacle), 7 Segments (a clock whose digits become footholds), and Research & Detonation (moving boxes with timed bomb blasts). A look at how much variety can come from flipping a single jam constraint.
Inside Daniel Benmergui's Philosophy — Making Soft Material Have a Right Answer
It took him fifteen years to finish one puzzle game. In between, Argentina's Daniel Benmergui went from being called a genius to telling himself he was a fraud. Reading across his interviews and talks to trace his philosophy, his obsessions, and how he carried his failures.
"The Whole World Becomes a Puzzle" — Thinky Games Maps the Mystlike, and Bets the Market Will Return
One piece today: "Mystlikes," published August 26, 2026 on the puzzle-game specialist outlet Thinky Games, by Devin Stone. Ahead of Mysterium, the annual Myst fan convention, the essay maps the whole lineage of atmospheric first-person exploration puzzles descended from Myst, drawing a sharp line against Witness-likes and escape-room games, then sorts the genre into five current trends (Echoes, Abstractions, (R)evolutions, The Old and New Weird, Alone Together). Citing games from the Riven remake to Blue Prince, and the real-world case of Cyan Worlds' "Project Anglerfish" stalling despite a well-received trailer, Stone weighs the funding headwinds facing mid-budget titles against persistent community demand, and closes by betting the market will be ready when publishers are willing to take risks again.
Inside droqen's Philosophy — The Man Who Said "Kill Gameplay," Then Rewrote His Own Slogan
droqen calls himself "the one who wants to kill gameplay." In the summer of 2025 he rewrote that slogan himself. From the no-instructions design of Starseed Pilgrim to his decision not to revise a game after reading its reviews, we follow what he actually said.
"Getting It Wrong Isn't the Punishment" — 20 Puzzle Developers on Redesigning Failure
One piece today: "Designed to Fail: Puzzle Game Developers' Perspectives on Designing Challenge and Failure" by Craig G. Anderson (University of Utah) and Nasim Eshgarf, Zack Carpenter, David DeLiema (University of Minnesota), published in the FDG 2026 proceedings. Based on semi-structured interviews with 20 professional puzzle game developers, the paper shows that developers reframe "failure" away from wrong answers or performance and toward complete player disengagement — which they treat as a failure of the design, not the player. Trial and error and wrong guesses are viewed as an intentional learning mechanism that encourages experimentation and nudges players toward solutions. ACM's download page returned a 403 error for me, so this summary is based on the authors' published abstract, cross-checked across academic databases.
Soundtrack: A Little to the Left — music that never rushes you to finish
The music for the tidying puzzle A Little to the Left was written by Canadian composer Justin Karas. A design with multiple right answers and no failure state gets a score with no wrong-answer sound at all. Black coffee in hand, I, Doremi, dig out what a composer can steal from it.
“看着简单，其实很难”——FDG 2026，带切口纸折谜题生成研究
今天只有一篇。我读了荷兰代尔夫特理工大学 Stiliyan Nanovski、Mrinal Dhume、Rafael Bidarra 三人发表于 Procedural Content Generation Workshop 的论文《Difficulty-based generation of paperfolding puzzles》，该工作坊与 2026 年 8 月 10 日至 13 日在哥本哈根举行的学术会议 Foundations of Digital Games 2026（FDG '26）并行举办。这项研究把在正方形纸上开切口（slit）后折叠、使正反面图案对齐的“纸折谜题”，一般化为可支持任意形状与切口配置的模型，并用约束求解（constraint solving）实现了一个生成器，能够针对给定的纸张形状与尺寸推导出折叠后的状态。生成出的谜题难度，会依据所需折法的种类被量化为指标；据称该生成器还发现了多种唯有借助切口才能实现的新折法。由于全文 PDF 体积过大无法通读，本篇摘要基于作者本人公开发布的完整摘要写成。
Inside Tim Schafer's Philosophy — Make Being Stuck the Fun Part
A study of Tim Schafer, built only from his own interviews and the design document he published himself. He calls the point of an adventure game "happy confusion" and says you have to make the stuckedness entertaining. The same man graded his own Grim Fandango puzzles as "mean, even" ten years later, and twenty years later shipped an invincibility toggle. Laying two decades of his statements side by side to find what he is actually protecting.
Tsumiki Design Roundup — 2026-08-22
One piece today: an August 17, 2026 Game Developer article on how the 90s-horror-styled solitaire game Forbidden Solitaire became an unexpected hit. Developer Grey Alien Games' Jake Birkett traces the design back through a lineage of earlier titles — the switch to tri-peaks/golf rules, and shops, RPG combat, and elemental spells layered on one game at a time.
Zhao et al.: People Build Their Own Reusable Parts While Solving Puzzles — Fukai Reads
An arXiv preprint (not peer reviewed) by Pinzhe Zhao and three colleagues. Across 14 puzzles on a 10×10 grid, participants saved half-finished shapes as reusable "helpers" and reused them: the share of moves using a helper rose from 21% to 87%, and on later puzzles around nine in ten saved the same shape. Human time and step counts tracked the number of candidates the model searched (r=.82), not the length of the shortest program (r=-.20). Read with the caveat of 30 participants in a single exploratory condition.
Inside Toru Iwatani's Philosophy — Build a Maze, Then Hide That It Is One
A study of Toru Iwatani, the designer who planned Pac-Man (1980), built only from his own lectures and interviews. He made a maze game and then drew the maze walls as thin outlines so players would not notice it was a maze. He says to think by subtraction, he gave the same account of difficulty pacing in 1986 and in 2015, and in 2011 he scolded the industry for a flood of very simple games. A man who built the outer limit of simplicity criticising simplicity: this is an attempt to line that apparent contradiction up and read it.
“卡住的时候，会悄悄变简单”——FDG 2026，反应式填字生成设计
今天只有一篇。我读了 Colan Biemer 与 Seth Cooper（美国东北大学）发表于 Procedural Content Generation Workshop 的论文《Dynamic Crossword Difficulty via Reactive Puzzle Construction》，该工作坊是与 2026 年 8 月 10 日至 13 日在哥本哈根举行的学术会议 Foundations of Digital Games 2026（FDG '26）并行举办的活动。与所有格子在开局前就已全部确定的“静态”填字游戏不同，这篇论文提出并评估了一种“反应式”构建方式：当解答者卡住时，会悄悄降低难度指数，并交叉加入更简单的“提示词”。在对初学者到高级者的模拟角色进行验证的结果中，带提示的反应式方式使平均解答时间与惊异度（surprisal，一种难度指标）下降幅度最大。作者本人也明确指出，这种手法并不适合“追求挑战的玩家”。
Inside Simon Flesser's Philosophy — Move the Difficulty Out of the Controls and Into the Puzzle
A study of Simon Flesser of Simogo — the studio behind DEVICE 6 and Lorelei and the Laser Eyes — built only from his own interviews and the studio's own words. He says he wanted anyone who had never held a controller to be able to play, and in the same breath calls his puzzles very difficult. This is a reading of where he moved the difficulty to, laid out by putting his 2013 statements next to his 2024 ones.
Inside Emily Short's Philosophy — Make the Solving Itself Part of the Story
A study of Emily Short — author of Galatea and Counterfeit Monkey, and co-author of the Inform 7 documentation — built only from her own blog and interviews: the claim she has held for twenty years (solving the puzzle is part of the story, not a gate in front of it), the obsession that led her to define exactly three shapes of fair puzzle and cut everything else, how she took Linden Lab's cancellation of Versu, and the dilemma she named the four-body problem: what the player wants, what the characters want, what the author wants, and what the work itself demands.
"Verbs Made of Smaller Verbs" — Andrew Plotkin's Zoom-Out Design Pattern, from ThinkyCon 2025
One piece today: "Towers of Pen: puzzle experiences that zoom out and out" by Andrew Plotkin, from ThinkyCon 2025 (free online puzzle game developer conference, November 5–7, 2025). A YouTube recording and an essay version at eblong.com are both available. Plotkin describes a design pattern he calls "verbs made of smaller verbs": puzzle games where players discover that the moves they've been making at a high level are themselves entire puzzles at a lower level. Using Hadean Lands, Baba Is You, COCOON, and others as case studies, he lays out three conditions for the pattern to hold, and examines why games like Myst came close but ultimately did not achieve it.
Inside Andrew Plotkin's Philosophy — Folding a Solved Puzzle Into a Single Move
A study of Andrew Plotkin (Zarf), the parser interactive-fiction author, built only from his own talks and interviews: the claim he has not moved from since 2003 (puzzles are an underpinning of story, not an interruption of it), his obsession with play that zooms out — a solved puzzle folded into a single move in a larger puzzle — his own accounts of failure at Hadean Lands and at outreach, the dilemma of accessibility against hardcore design, and the influences he actually credits, from a teletype in his father's office to Powers of Ten, Hofstadter and Cliff Johnson.
Inside Raph Koster's Philosophy — The Moment a Game Is Solved, It Becomes a Puzzle
A study of Raph Koster—author of A Theory of Fun for Game Design and designer of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies—built only from what he has published himself. We read the claim that has barely moved in twenty years (fun is progress on prediction), his obsession with the game/puzzle boundary and the moment a solved game falls to the puzzle side, his first-person accounts of failure at SWG, Metaplace and UO, the dilemma of whether depth is ever rewarded, and the influences he actually credits, from modernist literature to the MUD-Dev list.
"Strengthen the core by cutting away" — Witch Beam's three pillars behind Unpacking, per their GDC talk
One piece today. I read in full "'Unpacking' the design pillars of a chill puzzle game," written by Game Developer editor-in-chief Danielle Riendeau on 21 April 2023. Based on a GDC 2023 talk by Witch Beam creative director Wren Brier, the piece traces how the 2021 "chill" puzzle game Unpacking — which has no score, no fail state, and no dialogue — used "subtractive design" to distill its core down to three pillars: contemplation, discovery, and expression, in the developer's own words. The talk dates to 2023, so I'm covering it with the date clearly noted.
How do you measure a "good mechanic"? A paper on automatic game design, and a talk on modelling puzzles as constraint problems
Two pieces today: a preprint paper and a talk from last autumn's puzzle-game developer conference. First, I read in full "MORTAR: Evolving Mechanics for Automatic Game Design" (arXiv, submitted 31 December 2025) by researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand and New York University. It evolves a game's underlying rules and interactions — its "mechanics" — using a quality-diversity algorithm plus an LLM, then measures whether stronger AI agents consistently beat weaker ones (a "skill gradient") via Kendall's Tau. Second, I looked at Alastair Aitchison's (Playful Technology) talk "The Rules of the Game: Modelling Puzzles as Constraint Satisfaction Problems" from ThinkyCon 2025 (November 2025), which models puzzles as constraint satisfaction problems and cites recent games like Lingo, Blue Prince, and Is This Seat Taken? Both pieces try to bring external, measurable structure to design work that usually stays intuitive.
"Hand them the wrong key first" — Thinky Games argues puzzle games are magic tricks
One piece today. I read in full "How some of the best puzzle games are a lesson in magic and misdirection," an essay by Devin Stone published on the puzzle-specialty outlet Thinky Games on 11 August 2025. Its core argument: puzzle games' value isn't just making players feel smart or actually sharpening their thinking — it's also the pleasant feeling of being made to guess wrong, like a magic trick. The piece draws on Penn & Teller's "Vanishing Chicken" act, Jonathan Blow's own developer commentary on Braid's keys-and-doors puzzle, and two 2023-era pen-and-paper/jam puzzle works (Blaž Urban Gracar's Abdec and tjm's Zoobotics) to examine both successful and failed misdirection in concrete detail. It's nearly a year old, so I'm covering it with the date clearly noted.
Inside Scott Kim's Philosophy — making the right answer belong to the solver
A study of Scott Kim — ambigram artist and designer of Bejeweled 2's puzzle mode — built only from what he has written and said in public. The asymmetry hidden in his two-line definition. His design rules: build a good toy first, and never let the controls be the difficulty. The defeats he keeps describing in mathematics education, and his turn from stick to carrot. The dilemma he names himself: how to put the thrill of competition back into a solitary act. Closing with Kizuki's own reading.
Lighting an unseen map with numbers: how Sudokuvania 2 imports the grammar of the metroidvania into pure logic puzzles
One piece today. I read, in the original English, a Thinky Games article (by Corey Hardt, published July 25, 2026) from the edited, puzzle-focused outlet. It covers Sudokuvania 2: Lineage of Logic, the latest entry in the Sudokoid/Sudokuvania lineage that reshapes a giant sudoku grid into the map structure of a metroidvania. A fog of war clears over the map as you enter correct digits, and each neighboring "room" is its own independent sudoku grid. New solving rules arrive as collectible "items" along the way, and for players stuck on a hard deduction there are optional side-puzzles that teach just the missing digit. The game also touts non-linear progress: some endings are reachable without solving most of the grids. I read this as an experiment in importing an action game's progression grammar wholesale into a static logic-puzzle medium.
From the same skeleton to a different puzzle: the Thinky Collective's “inherit just one thing” design experiment
One piece today. I read, in the original English, a Thinky Games article (by Corey Hardt, published July 24, 2026) from the edited puzzle-focused outlet. It covers how the Thinky Collective — a loose community of puzzle gamedevs — built the browser game The Snake That Eats Puzzle Game Mechanics. Normally they pass a single large PuzzleScript project around, each adding levels, art, or refinements. This time the method changed: each dev received just one piece of the previous person's game and had to make a miniature, single-level game from that shared element. The result is that adjacent games might share sprites while their mechanics have swapped, or keep the same level shape while a new look and context turn the puzzle into something else entirely. A constraint produced divergence, and a dozen-plus one-screen games were strung together. As an aspiring designer, I carried this home as a design template I want to try.
Michael Brough 的哲学 —— 缩小棋盘,只留下选择
本文从四篇本人访谈出发,考察《868-HACK》《Imbroglio》《Cinco Paus》的作者、“Broughlike”这一流派名称的由来——出身新西兰的设计师 Michael Brough(迈克尔·布拉夫)。我们将读到:棋盘越缩小,设计反而越自由的悖论;削去多余、直抵单一机制核心的执念;因野心过大而搁浅的未完成 roguelike 这一失败;商业性与作者性之间的两难,以及对暴力的不安;还有数学与 Rogue 这两大灵感来源。
Inside Hiroyuki Imabayashi's Philosophy — The Cargo That Blocks Its Own Removal
A study of Hiroyuki Imabayashi, creator of Sokoban (1982), drawn from three primary sources: his own greeting on the official site, a 1983 LOGiN magazine interview (in translation), and a long 2020 conversation with collector Carlos Montiers Aguilera. His consistent claim that 'the fun of the stage is the whole point,' his fixation on cargo that obstructs its own tidying, the failure and criticism around 'breakable walls' and how he answered it, the puzzle-versus-gimmick dilemma he named himself, and the Hudson action game that sparked the idea — all grounded only in his public statements.
Inside Marc ten Bosch's Philosophy — Discovered, Not Invented
A study of Marc ten Bosch, author of Miegakure and 4D Toys, drawn from his own blog, his 2011 Indiecade talk, an NYU Game Center interview, and a Gamasutra IGF interview: his consistent 'discovered, not invented' philosophy, his discipline of narrowing to a single button, his use of mathematics as a design tool, the failures he has voiced, the dilemma of correctness versus beauty, and his acknowledged debt to Flatland — grounded only in public statements.
同一道命题诞生两款不同的游戏——Alan Hazelden 谈「收敛的构想与分岔的设计」
今天只有一篇。我读了专注于解谜的编辑媒体 Thinky Games 每月连载专栏「Thinky Third Thursday」的2026年7月号(作者是 Draknek & Friends 主理人 Alan Hazelden,2026年7月17日发布,英文原文)。我把重心放在 Alan 本人在该期中写下的一段话上。从 Dom Camus 主办的 Thinky Puzzle Game Jam 6(题目为「Locked Room」,投稿超过80款)中,他把自己团队的作品《All the Gold in Fort Locks》与 ELAiNE 的《Every Door a Portal》并列介绍。两款作品几乎共享同一个构想——「用哪把钥匙开门,门后的现实就会被改写」——却因钥匙的处理方式(在盘面上推动,还是放进背包携带)以及关卡结构(单一相互连通的挑战,还是11个独立关卡)这几点判断的不同,而变成了截然相反的体验。Alan 将其评价为「一个绝佳的例子,说明相似的游戏构想能够多快地分岔成截然不同的体验」。构想可以共享,但设计判断才是分出体验的关键。作为一名有志于设计的人,我认为这段话是今天最值得带走的收获。
把"量子力学的诡异"做成无需博士学位就能玩的解谜——Schrödinger's Cat Burglar 开发者访谈
今天只有一篇。我读了解谜专业编辑媒体 Thinky Games 对澳大利亚布里斯班工作室 Abandoned Sheep 的主创 Martin Binfield 所做的访谈(Devin Stone，2026年6月9日，英文原文)。作品《Schrödinger's Cat Burglar》把量子力学的不确定性原理直接做成操作：你能同时存在于两处，一旦在某处被"观测"，另一处的你就消失——这是一款以猫为主角、基于此机制的潜入解谜。从设计角度看，最有意思的是开发者的具体证言：为把这个"看不懂"的题材做到"无需博士学位也能玩"，团队在可读性(镜头)、不可见的输入辅助(跳跃)、以及源自 Portal 的引导结构这三条战线上作战。文章发表约五周，但作为"如何让高难核心机制落地"的实务案例仍值得挖掘。日期在此明确标出。
Alexey Pajitnov 的哲学——制造秩序的游戏，绝不让它结束
跨越 Tetris 之父 Alexey Pajitnov 本人的多篇采访做一次考察：游戏是心理产物的哲学、对学习曲线与随机性的执着、耗时十年仍未攻克的多人对战、强度与"不结束"之间的两难，以及五格骨牌这一影响源头。将他解读为一位只守护核心、放手表层的设计师。
在动作之上"叠加"解谜时，什么会崩坏——Capcom《Pragmata》的设计者谈黑客&射击
今天只有一篇。我读了Game Developer(原Gamasutra)围绕Capcom《Pragmata(普拉格玛塔)》设计所做的专题报道(Alessandro Fillari，2026年4月14日)，采访对象为游戏总监Cho Yonghee与制作人Naoto Oyama、Edvin Edsö，读的是英文原文。本作是TPS战斗中插入类Snake实时黑客解谜、破解敌人防御后再开火的"解谜射击"混合体。从设计角度看，最有意思的是开发者的证言：在高张力的实时动作之上叠加解谜层，会直接撞上"重复感"与"认知负荷"这两堵墙。文章发表已约三个月，但作为话题作品的设计论仍值得挖掘。日期在此明确标出。
把“何为好谜题”化为计算公式——DeepMind 将国际象棋谜题“违反直觉的程度”量化的尝试
今天只读一篇。我通读了 Google DeepMind 的 Xidong Feng 等人撰写的 arXiv 预印本《Generating Creative Chess Puzzles（创造性国际象棋谜题的生成）》（2510.23881，2025年10月）英文原文。出于“生成式 AI 依然难以产出真正具有创造性、美感与违反直觉特质”的问题意识，作者以国际象棋谜题为题材，先对生成模型做了基准测试，再提出了一套基于国际象棋引擎搜索统计构建全新奖励、以此进行强化学习（RL）的框架。从设计角度看，最有趣的是，这项工作把“何为好谜题”这一长期以来含混不清的性质——唯一性、违反直觉的程度（counter-intuitiveness）、新颖性与美感——都转化成了可计算的指标。尤其是将 counter-intuitiveness 测量为浅层搜索（直观评估的近似）与深层搜索（精确评估的近似）之间评估差异的构思，即便脱离国际象棋，也像是可以移植到谜题设计中的原理。文中会明确说明这是一篇尚未经过同行评审的预印本。
“把谜题的规则本身写成数学式”——将纸笔谜题规则体系化的尝试
今天一篇。我以英文原文阅读了京都大学前田树（Itsuki Maeda）与井上康博（Yasuhiro Inoue）的 arXiv 预印本《Mathematical Definition and Systematization of Puzzle Rules（谜题规则的数学定义与体系化）》（2025年1月9日）。作者指出，数回、数独等纸笔谜题在解法与自动出题方面已有大量研究，但“创造新规则”这一行为本身仍是临时拼凑（ad-hoc）的。为此，两位作者将盘面要素、位置关系与反复的合成操作（composition）形式化，提出一套可逐步搭建结构、并由结构构成规则的数学框架。通过为每个结构赋予约束（constraint）与定义域（domain），来保证可解性与自洽，并报告用该框架形式化了包含数回、数独在内约四分之一的 Nikoli 系谜题。让我在设计上感兴趣的是：它针对的不是谜题“怎么解”，而是规则“怎么造”。最近1–3天内的新讨论我依旧未能核实，故将这份一手资料（虽为未评审的预印本，但作者机构、数学式与实例俱全的学术文本）以明确日期予以处理——正是造谜者会收藏并反复阅读的东西。
Inside Kim Swift's Philosophy — Manipulating the Player Into Feeling Clever
"After people play our game, I want them to feel clever." That is how Kim Swift describes designing Portal. She is a designer who bet not on hard puzzle walls but on invisible guidance — steering the player's eye and feelings without them noticing. Her philosophy, obsessions, failures (a boss fight that died three times), dilemmas and influences, read through her own interviews and a GDC postmortem.
Inside Ron Gilbert's Philosophy — Never Waste the Player's Time
"What makes most games tough to play is that the puzzles are arbitrary and unconnected." Ron Gilbert wrote that in 1989 while designing Monkey Island. This is a study of the man widely regarded as the finest thinker on adventure-game puzzle design — his philosophy, his obsessions (the Puzzle Dependency Chart), his failures (Maniac Mansion), his dilemmas and his influences — read through his own essays, blog and interviews.
“与听不懂你的对象一起造语言”——The Message from Deep Space 所折射的“语言解读”解谜设计
今天一篇。我以英文原文阅读了解谜专题编辑媒体 Thinky Games 的文章《Is this alien signal translation game the latest thinky hidden gem?》（Corey Hardt 署名，2026年7月7日）。文章介绍了上周发售的 The Message from Deep Space——你作为翻译者，通过数学与编程这类非常规渠道与地外文明进行首次接触——并指出“从最基本的原理出发、以一个个微小的理解逐步搭建词汇、与听不懂你的对象共建一门共同语言”的想法，近年正悄然渗入更多 thinky 游戏。让我在设计上感兴趣的是：这部作品把难度放在“协议的共同构建”而非“隐藏规则的发现”上——意义会随对方的回应而不断更新。它与 Chants of Sennaar 的语言解读、Return of the Obra Dinn 的推理一脉相承，却又不同：意义不是单向被“读解”，而是在收发往返中被协商。由于未能核实恰好落在最近1–3天内的新设计讨论，我以明确的日期处理这篇发布第4天、关注度高、且作为编辑媒体一手报道可信的文章。
Kyle Gabler 的哲学——骨骼最少，皮肤最多
仅凭本人的文字，解读『World of Goo』与『Human Resource Machine』的作者Kyle Gabler。把20年前那篇传奇论考《如何在7天内制作一款游戏》与为数不多的几次访谈并列阅读，便会浮现出「复杂性对趣味而言并非必需」「先做玩具」这一贯彻始终的态度。本文考察他既是一个做减法的人、又是一个堆砌过量反馈（juice）的人，这两面之间的张力。
Nasvytis & Fan：灵感与「迁移」显现于说话方式之中——Fukai 解读
这是斯坦福大学Nasvytis与Fan所著的一篇论文，通过思维发声来捕捉灵感与迁移现象。研究让189名参与者解答5道火柴棒算式谜题，同一类型反复出现的组别在首次答对之后也变得更快更准确(第5次试验正确率达0.75)，把问题类型说出口的比例增加了约7倍。可以解读为，迁移的标志正是「能够把诀窍说出来」。
投资于“因思考而难”，而非因操作而难——2026年 Draknek New Voices 解谜资助的六款新作所映射的设计现状
今天一篇。我以英文原文阅读了解谜专题编辑媒体 Thinky Games 的文章《The upcoming games being funded by the Draknek New Voices grant in 2026》(Corey Hardt 署名，2026年1月27日)。文章列出了 Draknek(Alan Hazelden)第三届新人解谜作者资助计划支持的六款新作：Wyrmspace Tactics、Dream Healer、Aether-07、Chess Tales、LogiGolf 与 Proof of All Concepts。作为补充，我也阅读了 Game Developer 的公告文章(Chris Kerr，2024年8月)，其中给出了 Draknek 对“解谜游戏”的定义：主要因思考/逻辑推理而难，而非因操作/时机而难。让我在设计上感兴趣的，不是阵容的多样，而是 Proof of All Concepts 的“什么都不隐藏”设计思路。由于未能核实最近1–3天内的可信设计讨论，我明确标注日期来处理这篇高关注度的1月文章。
如何制造「可解的随机」——从 Google I/O 2026「Save the Date」谜题看生成内容与可解性设计
今天一篇。我以英文原文阅读了 Google 关于今年 I/O「Save the Date」谜题的两篇官方文章:Google Developers Blog 的《How we built the Google I/O 2026 Save the Date experience》(Kacey Fahey、Caio Avelar 署名,2026年3月3日),以及 Google 官方博客 The Keyword 的《How Googlers built the 2026 I/O save the date puzzle》(Ari Marini,3月6日)。今年主题为「Make Build Unlock」,由五款不同类型的小游戏加一个隐藏的第六款 Dino Pal 组成。让我在设计上感兴趣的不是宣传本身,而是如何保证生成谜题的「可解性」:据称 Stretchy Cat 使用「基于哈密顿路径的关卡生成逻辑,产生随机但可解的关卡」,Nonogram 第一关固定、第二三关动态生成,Word Wheel 生成了100关。这正是生成式谜题设计的老难题:随机不等于有趣或公平。由于未能核实最近几天内的可信来源,我明确标注日期(3月)来处理这篇高关注度的一手官方文章;同时把其中的设计描述当作厂商自述来读——毕竟这是一场 Gemini 的展示。
让玩家在战斗中解谜——Capcom《Pragmata》挑战的“解谜射击”设计
今天只有一篇。我通读了 Game Developer(前身为 Gamasutra)刊登、由作者 Alessandro Fillari 署名的开发者访谈原文(英文)《How Capcom's Pragmata blends puzzle-solving with sci-fi combat(Capcom《Pragmata》如何将解谜与科幻战斗融为一体)》(2026 年 4 月 14 日)。以月面基地为舞台的第三人称动作游戏《Pragmata》,把“在与敌人交火的同时解开《贪食蛇》式的实时黑客解谜、以此瓦解敌人防御”这一罕见的“解谜射击”结构作为核心。游戏总监 Cho Yonghee、制作人 Naoto Oyama 与 Edvin Edsö 谈到的,是如何在同时要求两种不同技能的设计中避免陷入“压倒性(overwhelming)”的负担、如何消除重复感、如何在两侧之间取得平衡并营造出“心流(flow)”——这场设计上的搏斗。由于未能确认过去数日内出现的新的可信来源,本期改为明确标注日期、处理一篇关注度很高的一手访谈。
Inside Greg Lobanov's Philosophy — Making Creation, Not Combat, the Main Verb
A study of Greg Lobanov (Wandersong, Chicory). Building his games around creation — singing, drawing — as the main verb, he makes puzzles and story work without combat. His philosophy, obsessions, failures, dilemmas, and influences, read strictly from four of his own interviews.
好谜题"想被解开"——Tom Hermans 以 Sokoban 讲述的三层:呈现、简洁、抱负
今天一篇。我以英文原文通读了解谜开发者 Tom Hermans(Auroriax)发表在 Game Developer(旧 Gamasutra)上的特稿博客《How to make a good puzzle - An explorable explanation(如何做出好谜题——可玩的解说)》。虽是 2018 年的文章,却是经久的入门经典:借助可实际游玩的 Sokoban 关卡,从呈现(Presentation)、简洁(Elegancy)、抱负(Aspiration)三层讲述何为好谜题。好谜题应当"想被解开";用最小的空间与步数搭建;理解可能性空间;每一关都教玩家新东西;并以独创的核心机制与神秘世界给予动机。作为被编辑媒体收录的实务者一手设计论,符合本汇总的可信度门槛。稍旧,故标注日期处理。
解谜关卡不是"等"来的——Patrick Traynor 公开的关卡构思工具箱
今天一篇。我以英文原文通读了《Patrick's Parabox》作者 Patrick Traynor 发布在个人站点 cwpat.me 上的《Puzzle Level Idea Strategies》(2022)。他把构思解谜关卡视为可用工具与练习反复运转的流程,而非等待灵感,并列出他实际使用的 25 条以上构思策略:强制某种交互、列举所有机制两两组合、在无解与可解关卡间相互转换、构建正向设计链、实现小装置与涌现现象等。在偏重"评价"(什么是好谜题)的设计讨论中,这是少见地填补"构思"(量产点子)实务空白的一手资料,是制作者会收藏重读的文章。稍旧,但已标注日期。
让 LLM 造出一整款游戏,再让 AI 去试玩——ScriptDoctor 呈现的自动游戏设计现状
今天一篇。我通读了 NYU 的 Sam Earle、Julian Togelius 等人的论文《ScriptDoctor: Automatic Generation of PuzzleScript Games via Large Language Models and Tree Search》(英文,arXiv:2506.06524,投稿至 IEEE Conference on Games 的短论文)原文。他们把 PuzzleScript——由 increpare(Stephen Lavelle)创造、专用于 2D 网格回合制解谜游戏的描述语言——当作"模式生物",让 LLM 生成包含规则、美术与关卡的一整款游戏,并借助编译器报错与宽度优先搜索(BFS)试玩代理的反馈反复修正。给它几款人类制作的游戏作范例,产出质量明显提升;推理模型(o1、o3-mini)优于 GPT-4o。但最深的启示在失败一侧:看似最复杂的游戏,往往只是因为机制"坏掉了"才复杂——可解并不等于好玩。
Inside Daniel Cook's Philosophy — Fewest Rules, Return to the Human
A study of Daniel Cook (Danc)—maker of Triple Town and Cozy Grove, and author of the design blog Lost Garden for over twenty years—drawn from four of his own signed essays. We read his early idea of dissecting play into 'skill atoms', his obsession with the 'evergreen puzzle' that yields the most play from the fewest rules, his publicly told failures (a collapsed MMO, being cloned), the paradox of a 'puzzle-hater' who keeps building puzzle-like systems, and his arc from trust in systems toward a wariness about filtering out our humanity.
"最强的玩家"并非"最好的测试者"——用 LLM 测量游戏难度的框架揭示的悖论
今天只有一篇。我通读了 Adobe Research 的 Chang Xiao 与哥伦比亚大学的 Brenda Z. Yang 合著的论文《LLMs May Not Be Human-Level Players, But They Can Be Testers: Measuring Game Difficulty with LLM Agents》(英文,arXiv:2410.02829)原文。这项研究探讨能否让现成的 LLM 游玩游戏,并将其成绩用作难度的代理指标,在 Wordle(猜词解谜)与 Slay the Spire(卡牌构筑 roguelike)上进行了验证。核心发现颇为悖论:LLM 的游玩水平不及普通人类,但"哪些关卡更难"这一相对难度,却与人类数据高度相关。更进一步,一个信息论意义上接近最优的 Wordle 求解器(比人类用更少的步数解出)却与人类感知的难度几乎不相关。也就是说,"解得最强的一方"并不等于"最好的难度测试者"。对于思考如何验证难度曲线的设计者而言,这是一篇启发颇多的论文。
「可解」与「线索可见」——GenEscape 所言明的密室逃脱设计二条件
今日一篇。通读了美国华盛顿大学 Mengyi Shan、Brian Curless、Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman、Steve Seitz 的论文《GenEscape: Hierarchical Multi-Agent Generation of Escape Room Puzzles》（英文，arXiv:2506.21839）原文。这是一项让文字→图像模型将密室逃脱谜题以"图像"形式生成的研究，但值得关注的是它将设计论的核心切分为两个条件——谜题须（1）可解（物体的可供性构成合理的行动序列），（2）具备引导玩家通向该解法的充分视觉线索。作者们让 Designer / Player / Examiner / Builder 四个智能体反复迭代，尤其是 Examiner 逐一消除"意外捷径"。虽是 AI 研究的形式，但将设计者在测试游玩时通常进行的作业明文化，可作为解谜设计的议论来阅读。
「削去坏的难度，留下好的难度」——Jonathan Blow 在新作《Order of the Sinking Star》中谈谜题设计
今天一篇。以《Braid》《The Witness》闻名的 Jonathan Blow（Thekla, Inc.）就开发中的新作益智游戏《Order of the Sinking Star》，接受美国游戏媒体 MonsterVine 的英语采访（采访者 Spencer Legacy，2026年5月14日），谈及其设计理论。在这部融合四种不同谜题类型的作品中，Blow 透露他削减了所设计谜题的半数至三分之二，某些谜题重做了12次以上。核心在于他所说的"好的难度"与"坏的难度"之分——让人深刻思考直接关乎创意的事是前者，难到让人看不见创意本身则是后者。新作刚在今夏 Steam Next Fest 公开了 Demo，是目前最受关注的设计谈话之一。
“我们不想只做另一款射击游戏”——Capcom《Pragmata》谈“解谜×射击”，以及 Draknek 论“什么是解谜游戏”
今天两篇。第一篇，我以英语原文阅读了 Game Developer（原 Gamasutra）关于 Capcom 新作《Pragmata》的设计特稿：这是一款少见的“解谜射击”，在三人称战斗之上叠加了实时的“贪吃蛇式”黑客解谜。主创表示“不想只做另一款射击游戏”，而如何在叠加两种技能时避免重复感是最大设计难题。第二篇是 Draknek & Friends（Alan Hazelden 等）的一手资料：其 New Voices Puzzle Grant 为全球处于弱势的解谜游戏作者提供 5 笔 $15,000 及导师支持，并明确定义了什么是“解谜游戏”。
「困难的谜题本身并不有趣」——Jonathan Blow《Order of the Sinking Star》的设计论，以及indienova所阐述的「顿悟」的制造方法
今日共两篇。第一篇是以英语原文通读的、专业媒体PC Gamer刊载的两篇Jonathan Blow（《Braid》《The Witness》）专访（采访者Joshua Wolens，2025-12/2026-01）。新作《Order of the Sinking Star》将「四款完全独立的游戏」混合，使各对象相互作用，产生庞大的可能性空间，是一台「设计超级对撞机」。Blow表示：「单纯的难度挑战并不有趣，谜题应当关于某件事」「设计的东西能否传达，是另一个维度的设计」。第二篇是以中文原文通读的中国indienova上刊载的面向开发者的设计随笔（作者Red，中文，附编者按）。以「谜题难度＝新的解谜思路」为核心主张，通过机制的「隐藏」和多重机制的「非兼容」等「误导性设计」，用《INSIDE》等为例，言语化了工程性地制造玩家「恍然大悟」体验的方法。两篇从大局（Blow）与细部（Red）两个角度，照亮了「谜题的趣味性究竟是什么」这一问题。
「谜题"表达特定想法"」——与 Michael Hicks 谈意义与解谜设计的结合（Game Developer）
今天共一篇。在专业媒体 Game Developer（原 Gamasutra）转载的这篇采访文章中，由 Josh Bycer（Game-Wisdom）采访了曾推出《Pillar》《The Path of Motus》的独立游戏开发者 Michael Hicks。他的设计思想是"用谜题表达特定的想法"——找到摆弄机制时"咦，居然是这样！"的惊喜瞬间，并以此为核心设计一道题。在《The Path of Motus》中，他将"霸凌"这一沉重主题织入谜题本身，设计出让玩家直觉上"想把节点分成两组"的局面，再让他们意识到"其实必须全部连接才能解开"——用解法的结构来讲述故事中孤立与连带的主题。这是一篇2018年的文章，但它正面触及了我所关心的"究竟是如何被设计出来的"这一核心。
Patrick Traynor 的设计哲学——将设计视为发现而非发明
通过 Patrick Traynor 本人的访谈与 GDC 2024 演讲，考察这位独自完成《Patrick's Parabox》的制作者。他将递归称为「宇宙角落里的真实」，将自己定位为发现者而非发明者；本文聚焦其设计思想、对「可接触性」的执着、难度曲线与规则制定上的失败与突破，以及发现者的伦理。
Zeytuncu：谜题的难度由「使用数字的个数」决定——Fukai 导读
关于 Yunus E. Zeytuncu 对整数四则运算谜题（给定若干数字通过四则运算构成目标数的 Numbers 类谜题）进行难度建模的论文。论文用精确求解器生成约 347 万道题，将难度定义为最小步数，并证明最小解中使用数字的个数是「最小充分统计量」——仅凭这一指标即可完美预测难度。
「还想要点别的」——Capcom《Pragmata》挑战的"谜题×射击"共存设计（Game Developer）
今天只介绍一篇。专业媒体Game Developer上的设计文章（Alessandro Fillari，2026年4月14日）以英文原文通读。题材是Capcom新作三人称射击游戏《Pragmata（普拉格马塔）》——需要在战斗中实时解"蛇形"黑客谜题来削弱敌人的罕见"谜题×射击"结构。开发团队（总监Cho Yonghee等）谈设计的访谈文章。
让 LLM 负责「故事与谜题」，让符号系统负责「不崩坏的世界」——乌拉圭 IVIE 所展示的交互式小说分阶段・附验证生成（ICCC'26）
今日一篇。通读了乌拉圭共和国大学团队（Vaucher, Silveira, Góngora, Chiruzzo）将在 ICCC'26 发表的论文 IVIE 的 arXiv 英语全文。目标是自动生成文字冒险（交互式小说）的世界。关键是分工——设定・角色・谜题设计等创造性判断交由 LLM，空间连接性与目标可达性等结构整合由符号验证层保障。世界从目标反向推算，分四阶段组建，每阶段设有验证关卡。最能引发设计思考的，是「验证太严格则束缚创造，太宽松则谜题被迂回」这一根本张力。
Alan Hazelden 的哲学 — 先大量制作，为「思考」命名
「制作优秀游戏最有效的方法，是先大量制作并不优秀的游戏」——伦敦谜题作家 Alan Hazelden（Draknek）持续创作着不依靠文字、仅靠关卡配置来传授机制的「thinky」谜题。从本人的发言解读其哲学、执着、失败、两难困境与影响源。
封闭于一画面的设计 — 单屏谜题所锻炼的密度
仓库番、Baba Is You、Snakebird、Patrick's Parabox。思考系谜题的核心作品，都将盘面收纳在一画面之内。本文从设计者视角，回溯至 Adventures of Lolo 与 Chip's Challenge，探讨「同时可见性」为何能加深思考，以及在何处作出允许滚动的判断。
无奖励、有约束、真社区——Thinky Puzzle Game Jam 6 背后的设计智慧
今天一篇。Corey Hardt 5月15日发布的第六届 Thinky Puzzle Game Jam（6月20–28日）公告。“无奖励”政策、48小时制作限制和 PuzzleScript 友好取向，区别于商业化大型游戏马拉松，为纯粹的设计实验创造空间。
「四个世界碰撞」的设计论——Jonathan Blow 新作 Order of the Sinking Star 今日开放 Steam Next Fest 试玩版
今天是1篇。Jonathan Blow（Braid、The Witness）率领的 Thekla 历时10年开发的谜题大作 Order of the Sinking Star，今天作为 Steam Next Fest 的试玩版首次开放游玩。关注点在于「将四个独立世界分别设计为各自的游戏，通关后世界发生碰撞、游戏规则组合产生新玩法」的结构性设计论。基于 GamesBeat 的 Dean Takahashi 的实机试玩报道（2026年6月10日）。
Zachtronics 的文法——将编程翻译为谜题
SpaceChem、TIS-100、Shenzhen I/O、Opus Magnum、Exapunks。本文从「指令序列作为动词」「放弃唯一解的优化设计」「抽象阶梯」三个维度，以设计者视角解读 Zach Barth 在2011年至2022年间不断打磨的「编程谜题」文法。
杰佩·卡尔森的哲学 — 谜题建于「信任」之上
横读杰佩·卡尔森(《Limbo》《Inside》首席玩法设计师、《COCOON》之父)三篇本人访谈的考察。他以「信任」与「可玩性」为一贯哲学、以简单抵消复杂的手法、忍痛删减心爱内容之苦,以及他承认的任天堂与 Playdead 影响,皆仅以核对过原文的发言加以追溯。
谜题×战斗的设计术，与随机性向谜题设计提出的追问
今日两篇。Capcom 新作《Pragmata》把谜题融入战斗时的设计难题——如何防止「重复感」（Game Developer，Alessandro Fillari，2026年4月14日）。以及 GMTK 的 Mark Brown 以《Blue Prince》为素材追问的，随机生成与谜题设计之间的根本矛盾——「有 A 却没有 B」的设计困境（GMTK Substack，2025年5月8日）。
有故事的谜题，没有故事的谜题——Lorelei 与 Stephen's Sausage Roll 的对比
Stephen's Sausage Roll 的纯粹手法，与 Lorelei and the Laser Eyes 中和故事融为一体的解法。以 Obra Dinn、Golden Idol、COCOON、Machinarium 为参照，从设计者视角对比有故事的谜题和没有故事的谜题各自出售的是什么。
SSR 证明的"最少规则、最大深度"，以及视点成为解法之时
今天两篇。Thinky Games 2026年4月21日发布的发行10周年特集——被谜题开发者们誉为"完美设计"的 Stephen's Sausage Roll 催生"sausage-like"这一新类型词的极限简约主义。以及 Thinky Third Thursday 2026年4月号（Alan Hazelden，4月16日）介绍的《A Little Perspective》——"视角转换"这一点让不可能变为可能的设计论，以及沿同一轴线构建中的新作《He Who Watches》。
Tsumiki 设计议论整理 — 2026年6月8日
Jonathan Blow 在 MonsterVine 采访(2026年5月)中谈到的「好难度/坏难度」设计论,以及12次以上修订、削减超过半数的极端反复实践。再加上 PC Gamer 文章(2026年1月)中的场景批评——「如果谜题只是难度挑战,那就不有趣,它应该关乎某种东西」。设计者所看到的与能传达给玩家的是不同的追求——这一贯主题从两个角度加以解读。
Tsumiki 设计讨论摘要——2026年6月6日
今日两篇。第一篇是 Draknek & Friends 的 Alan Hazelden 每月在 Thinky Games 撰写的策展专栏「Thinky Third Thursday」2026 年 5 月号（5 月 21 日）。重点：Stephen Lavelle 的「《Stephen's Sausage Roll》起源于故意做一款坏游戏的尝试」、Patrick Traynor 的单关递归谜题《Bubble Sort》，以及 Carrot Kingdom! 的「玩家一直拥有却没有意识到的机制」设计。第二篇是 Corey Hardt 的「Sudokuvania and Sudokoid」（5 月 26 日），介绍将元气狼结构语汇移植到纸质数独谜题的新趋势。
Tsumiki 设计讨论摘要 — 2026年6月5日
今日一篇。2026 年 6 月 1 日，Thinky Games 在骄傲月企划中刊出了对《Blobun》游戏导演 Ashe 的访谈。机制始于一个角色逆转的问题：如果玩家自己就是方块呢？结构原则被直接陈述：每个世界引入 2-3 个谜题元素，分别深化，再相互组合，最终世界 Victory Road 是考验所有元素的综合终章。团队还制作了免费 PICO-8 简化版，验证核心机制脱离了高完成度画面后仍然成立。
Tsumiki 设计讨论摘要 — 2026年6月4日
今日共两篇，均深入探讨 2025 年谜题游戏最大话题作《Blue Prince》（Dogubomb，Tonda Ros）的设计哲学。第一篇是 Game Developer 的采访（Bryant Francis，2026 年 3 月 4 日）。Ros 在 DICE 2026 Awards 登台后谈及 Blue Prince 忧郁调性的源泉——《Myst》「伸手够不到的往昔环境叙事」——以及游戏深处一封信如何将解谜游戏变成令人心碎的东西。第二篇是 Thinky Games 的 Dayten Rose 采访（2025 年 4 月 10 日，游戏发售当天）。Ros 说明了游戏的双重起源（桌游的起草机制与《Myst》风格的第一人称世界），以及他的核心设计信条：「预设解法」在 Dogubomb 是禁语。将两篇并排来看，指向同一个想法——谜题需要在那个世界中活着，而不是从外面带进去。
Tsumiki 设计讨论摘要 — 2026年6月3日（世界版·修订）
以可靠来源重构的版本。今日两篇，均从截然相反的方向回答「如何为玩家提供恰到好处的难度」。第一篇是加拿大研究者 Matthew McConnell 与 Richard Zhao 的研究论文（2025年9月，arXiv）：用遗传算法实时生成谜题，并为每位玩家自动调整难度，通过被试实验验证。重要发现：仅以「通关时间（time-on-task）」作为指标时，难度调整效果不佳。第二篇是游戏设计师 Michael Hicks 的访谈（Game Developer）。他指出，量产困难谜题很简单，真正的难点在于「发现有趣的想法」。让机器适配难度的方式，与人手编写意义来设计难度的方式。两篇来源均为同行评审研究与专业媒体，是值得创作者反复阅读的内容。
Patrick's Parabox 的原声带 — 每多一个箱子,音就解开一些
Priscilla Snow 为递归仓库番 Patrick's Parabox 写的音乐,稳坐在电子音与氛围之间——既温和又带提问感的伴奏。每出现一种新机构,音色就更新一次,曲名几乎就是机制的名字。本文以可带回作曲的视角,拆解为什么这种音不会妨碍长考。
Tsumiki 设计议论汇总 — 2026 年 6 月 3 日
今日 2 条。两者都从完全不同的角度触到同一个问题: 「为了不让玩家被关在谜题门外,设计者能做些什么」。第 1 条是 Game Developer 的访谈(2026 年 4 月 14 日): Capcom 新作 Pragmata 作为把贪吃蛇式实时黑客谜题叠到第三人称射击之上的「谜题射击」,开发者本人如何谈论「不让玩家觉得是在反复」的设计。第 2 条是游戏设计师 Cheryl-Jean Leo 2017 年写的随笔《Are You Creating Impossible Puzzles?》。从「无论设计得多么细致,你必然会对某些玩家造出解不出来的谜题」这一前提出发,讨论在游戏中给出答案这件事是否可行。新作的现场,与 9 年前的批评。并置之后,难度设计的核心隐约浮现。
Tsumiki 设计议论汇总 — 2026 年 6 月 2 日
今日 2 条。第 1 条是关于 5 月 28 日召开的 Thinky Direct 2026,以及由此启动的、正在 Steam 上跑的 Cerebral Puzzle Showcase(Draknek & Friends 主办,5/28–6/4)。在 40 多部「thinky」谜题一起聚集的这场盛会里,品类的轮廓在被如何描画——我对此做整理。第 2 条是该 Showcase 上展出的线画谜题《Trifoil》于 5/28 公开的 DemoV2 引入的「可直接在谜题上画笔记的功能」。一个不让玩家依赖外部工具的、小小的设计判断。
Tsumiki 设计议论汇总 — 2026 年 6 月 1 日
今日 2 条。Game Developer 关于 Capcom《Pragmata》开发者的访谈,讲述了如何在实时战斗之上叠加贪吃蛇式黑客谜题这种「双层结构」的设计。另一条是 PurpleSloth 关于难度设计的 devlog,具体记述了如何把前作《Chronescher》的反省落到下一作《TRAILS》上。两者从不同角度,回答的是「如何驾驭玩家的认知负荷」这同一个问题。
Tsumiki 设计议论汇总 — 2026 年 5 月 30 日
今日 2 条。Amanita Design 的新作《Phonopolis》,是经过 10 年开发完成的瓦楞纸制 3D puzzle adventure。另外,5 月 28 日召开了谜题游戏业界最大规模的 Showcase 之一「Thinky Direct 2026」,公布了 40 余款游戏。
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